I’ve heard songs before about writing a song to get over something or to explain something – usually about affairs of the heart – or about considering suicide (a certain Finnish band I can think of is a leader in those respects), while the UK’s Eurovision entry a couple of years ago (which finished second last) was about writing a song about her cheating boyfriend rather than slapping him in the face.
But I’d never encountered one previously about not actually being able to write a song.
And that is the premise behind Telephone Romeo’s ‘Muscle memory’. I have to admit that the combination of the artist’s name (he is in reality Aleksi Skippari and band) and the title did prompt me to wonder if it was a Benny Hill-style piece of double entendre and innuendo.
Moreover, Aleksi has, visually, the look of Jere Mikael Pöyhönen (Käärijä) whose ‘Cha Cha Cha’ placed second in the same year the UK entry bombed out. I hated that as much as I loved Erika Vikman this year.
So I wasn’t sure what to expect with ‘Muscle Memory’.
What I found was four and a half minutes of impressive, sweeping, energetic, melodic, synth-driven, multi-layered, non-stop psychedelic electro rock meets dream pop. It’s pretty much genre-less.
It could be played as the background to a very fast fairground carousel ride to good effect.
There are no lyrics that I can get access to and to be honest I can’t pick much out of the cacophony of notes and beats that propel the song like Concorde’s afterburners and sound like they’ve been recorded in its maintenance hangar.
And that’s a shame because the odd words I can hear sound quite erudite.
But the song needs no lyrical qualification anyway. It stands or falls (read: stands) on the musicianship and has so much muscle it could have come straight from Arnie’s gym.
(Continues after the Spotify link).
‘Muscle Memory’ follows a series of self released singles and two EPs from the Helsinki based artist and is out on the Soliti label on 13th February.
The musicians:
Aleksi Skippari : Vocals, Guitar, Bass, Synth
Tommi Pellinen: Synth
Samuli Kesti: Drums
Find him/them on
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/telephoneromeo/
